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JavaScript: The Missing Manual
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| List Price: | $39.99 |
| Price: | $26.39 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
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Product Description
In a clear, entertaining way, the book starts out by teaching you how to build a basic JavaScript program. Then, once you've mastered the structure and terminology, you'll learn how to use advanced JavaScript tools to add useful interactivity to your sites quickly and painlessly, rather than scripting everything from scratch.
To jump-start your progress, the book offers several "living examples" -- step-by-step tutorials for building Web site components with JavaScript using raw materials, such as graphics and half-completed Web pages, that you can download from the book's companion Web site.
In this book, you will learn:
- How to get started. The book introduces the building blocks of JavaScript, and general tips on computer programming. Learn to add scripts to a Web page; store and manipulate information; communicate with the browser window; respond to events like mouse clicks and form submissions; and identify and modify HTML.
- How to build Web Page Features. McFarland provides real-world examples of JavaScript in action. Learn to create pop-up navigation bars, enhance HTML tables, build an interactive photo gallery, and make Web forms more usable. Create interesting user interfaces with tabbed panels, accordion panels and pop-up dialog boxes.
- How to troubleshoot and debug. The book will teach you how to avoid the ten most common errors new programmers make, and how to find and fix bugs.
- How to communicate with the Web server. In addition to basic JavaScript, this manual covers Ajax, the approach that made JavaScript glamorous. Learn to use JavaScript to communicate with a server so that your Web pages can receive information without having to reload.
If you want to put JavaScript to work right away without getting tangled up in code, JavaScript: The Missing Manual is the best book available.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #17971 in Books
- Published on: 2008-07-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 543 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9780596515898
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Customer Reviews
May Need a Warning Label
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I thought the author's other "Missing Manual" on CSS was very good and said so. ( CSS: The Missing Manual ) I am not so sure about this one.
This book is meant to be a beginner book and it certainly does treat certain aspects of JavaScript well from that perspective. My problem is that the author has chosen to integrate a particular JavaScript framework, jQuery, into the examples, starting with the introductory chapter.
I have used jQuery and have a high opinion of it, esp. of its CSS-like selector syntax. However, I don't think I ever could have learned the basics of JavaScript using jQuery. jQuery has its own syntax and its own ways of doing things that are different from other JavaScript frameworks and certainly *much* different from generic JavaScript.
A true beginner is going to find it difficult separating what is applicable to the wide world of JavaScript from what will only be applicable in one particular circumstance.
Perhaps the book may be better labeled as a getting started with JavaScript and jQuery text.
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Javascript/jQuery
I have David's CSS book and was waiting for this book to come out. I can understand one of the author's reservations about this book being jQuery specific, but if you stop to think of it, is also one of its strengths. There are "n" number of Javascript books out there which are pretty good, but do not take you beyond beginning/inermediate Javascript programming.
Realistically and practically, in order to get anything useful done in a reasonable amount of time, you have to use one of the frameworks. It could be jQuery, Prototype/Scripty, Dojo, Yahoo, any of these frameworks will do. The author has chosen to use jQuery which is an excellent choice.
Actually, my nitpicking is on the other side, i.e., the author should have left beginning Javascript material to any one of the other books and simply focused on Javascript with jQuery. His presentation style is very effective and he obviously knows CSS/Javascript world very well. Even better, he can communicate it equally well.
If you are beyond the introductory phase in CSS/Javascript world and are looking to build something useful beyond the toy pages, this book along with his CSS book becomes very useful.
jQuery, without a doubt, is a superior framework. I prefer it to Prototype and Scriptaculous. I do not know Yahoo or Dojo so I cannot comment on them.
I would buy other books from David again. In fact, I would love to see an "advanced" book where he brings together all of his knowledge and communication skills for creating "professional" web front-ends. Keep the same tutorial format though.
Great introduction to Javascript
As Brett mentioned, this book integrates jQuery (a popular javascript library) into examples. More than half of the book teaches you how to use the jQuery library to enhance user experiences. It won't teach you how to write XMLHTTPRequest from scrach. Instead, the book teaches you how to make Ajax requests with jQuery, which greatly simplifies the problem (1~10 lines of code). The book exposes you to real-world problems and the practical way of solving them (that is using javascript libraries such as jQuery).
I strongly recommend this book to those who know nothing about javascript/ajax or jQuery. It serves as a great introduction to both of the topics. After you finish this book, you will be quite comfortable with javascript syntax. And if you want, you can always read other books to further extend you knowledge of plain javascript (the javascript without any library).
Brett gives a 3-star rating. I feel it is worth more than three, but I agree that it would be better if the publisher named the book "Javascript with jQuery" like.
